Archive for the News Category

Key changes to S&P’s Insurers Rating Methodology: A primer and Litmus guidance. S&P recently completed a “Request for Comment” (”RfC”) period for proposed changes to its Insurance Ratings Methodology*. It is now reviewing the comments and finalising the criteria and the related guidance. While these may therefore

First thoughts on how brokers should consider the financial health of insurers In certain jurisdictions we have seen an increasing regulatory and market focus on the financial health of insurers, increasing the risk that brokers the blame for using an insurer that fails. In this discussion document,

Why rising interest rates won’t, on their own, improve non-life reinsurers’ operational earnings. Non-life reinsurance pricing has been deemed inadequate by many market practitioners since 2014. While this has hit profitability, it is often seen as only part of the difficult environment for reinsurer earnings, the other

Inflating the way to reserve deficiencies The dog that hasn’t barked Many market participants and analysts have been waiting for some time for casualty reserve releases to dry up and deficiencies to emerge. Yet, while there have been a few high-profile cases of the latter, so far

When is a BBB rating really the same as an A+? For most traditional reinsurers a credit rating from one of the main agencies remains a business requirement. And in developed markets that rating often needs to be “A-“ or higher, at least if the reinsurer is

Why reinsurance practitioners should understand the drivers of cedant ratings Even in those markets where ratings are fundamental to carrier selection, most practitioners tend not to dwell too much on the details of how ratings are decided. Yet, for reinsurers and reinsurance brokers with rated cedant clients,

Keeping a Lookout for Outlooks Looking beneath the rating agency reinsurance sector announcements On 17 July 2018, Aon published an article remarking on the divergent outlooks the rating agencies have on the reinsurance sector, with Moody’s and S&P having a ‘stable’ outlook, while Fitch and A.M. Best

Earlier this year the New Zealand carrier CBL Insurance Ltd was placed in interim liquidation. The parent group’s Irish carrier (CBL Insurance Europe DAC) has also been put into administration (though the group’s Australian carrier, Assetinsure Pty Ltd, stresses that it continues to operate normally). Whether the

All professions build mystiques. It’s intellectual protectionism. Lawyers use Latin a lot (not as much as they used to but their replacement phrases are almost as incomprehensible), accountants create impenetrable legislation and rules. You will have your own lists and examples. Actuaries, statisticians and modellers don’t really

So close and yet so far! How to turn a positive outlook into an upgrade. Achieving a rating upgrade once the outlook has been changed to positive is often regarded as little more than a formality. However, what could be taken for granted may turn out to